March 27, 2016

Cardinal wraps up uneven season in Elite Eight loss

in its final game of the season, Stanford played UW even for three quarters.

Unfortunately, those were the second, third and fourth quarters. During the first quarter they allowed the Huskies to open with a 12-0 run, and hit only 2 of 14 field goal attempts. That first quarter ended with Stanford down 13, at 7-22.

The Cardinal made some headway later and closed to within four points in the fourth quarter. But then another dry spell of 1-9 shooting in the final minutes settled the issue and sent Washington to its first-ever Final Four.

Several Cardinal players ended with good performances. Lili led the Cardinal scoring with 19 points, including three three-pointers. Bird had 17 points (including two three-pointers) and 15 rebounds. Karlie hit four of seven three-point attempts for 12 points. Marta had 10 points including making two (of five) three-point attempts, plus six assists against one turnover. Brittany two three-pointers and Alanna had one.

This final game could be seen as a microcosm of the season. This was a Cardinal that played top-level basketball at times, as shown by their relaxed dispatch of top-seeded Notre Dame, and by spurts of scoring in today's game. But they could also go icy-cold, as for example at ASU, or in the fatal first quarter of this game.

Nevertheless for Cardinal fans there are promises of a bright future.

This season showed Erica McCall's maturation as a player, with a steadily improving ability to score from the mid-range and perimeter, and her almost habitual production of double-doubles — 18 this season. She averaged 14.9 points a game against only 5.6 the prior year and ends the season as the Cardinal's top scorer

Marta Sniezek maintained a high assist-to-turnover ratio in her freshman year — 103/62 for the season and 34/7 (4.9!) in the postseason. In the final few games, she began to demonstrate an ability to score as well.

Kaylee Johnson continued to rebound and play excellent defense, and also improved her offensive production.

Karlie Samuelson ended the season with a dazzling three-point shooting percentage of .473 (the fifth-best in the nation), and also showed steady improvement in her numbers of assists, steals and blocks.

Brittany McPhee almost doubled both her minutes per game (16.6 vs 9.9) and her points scored per game (6.5 vs 3.5) and will surely get more of both next year.

And we'll have one more year to enjoy Lili Thompson, who improved her average from 13.3 points per game to 14.7.

With a stellar group of freshmen (including three McDonald's All-American selections) arriving to challenge these established talents, next season's Cardinal should be even more competitive and -- one hopes -- more consistent than this year's.

Chantel Osafor was the Regional MVP; Bird and Lili were named to the All-Regional team.

Here are game reports and commentary:

The box score and play-by-play,

The game highlights video from Stanford Athletics,

The game highlights video from the Pac-12,

The postgame press conference, with Tara, Bird and Lili (action begins at the 6:01 minute mark, the UW segment at 26:27).

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